thats-racist

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges came under seriously ridiculous racially-charged scrutiny this week when local police chastised her for making this gesture with a young man involved with a Twin Cities charity. As you can see in this video, the hand sign was clearly the result of an awkward "how do I pose" sort of moment. Local TV station KSPT had another story: That the mayor was intentionally making a "gang sign" with the volunteer, a former felon.

The other twist in the story? Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau was just off camera during that entire photo shoot, on the far left here:

WARNING: There's a copious amount of racially-charged foul language in this video. Fair warning for those who may be triggered by that.This is the video of startlingly casual racism that's been making the rounds on the internet in the past 24 hours. According to the uploader (a man going by the handle OYAB), this incident occurred the previous Friday, May 30th. By his account, he started up his car, prompting his stereo to play automatically. That's when this mother decided to go off in front of her children and throw out the hate speech.If her twitter profile (again, warning for language in that link) is any indication, this kind of behavior isn't new to her. In a recent radio interview defending her actions she also brought up the old "but I have black friends/relatives" defense, which never ends well. The incident also prompted her ex to request custody of their children, for reasons that might be obvious.Nice work by OYAB keeping calm in this kind of situation. Clearly we still have a long road ahead of us when it comes to race relations in America.

Update: Narvell Benning, the guy behind the camera, tells his story in an interview on 93.7 WBLK.

If you haven't seen it already, prepare yourself for what may be the most obnoxious music video ever made. The Los Angeles-based alt bro rock band Day Above Ground found themselves at the epicenter of internet s**tstorm this week for their new music video "Asian Girlz," a not-so-subtle musical tribute to Asian women which has been almost unanimously denounced as racist and offensive. Click through to see it for yourself.

Note: this video contains partial nudity and explicit lyrics that may not be suitable for minors.

Some Dumb Erratum of the Day: In the rush to come up with pun headlines to describe the phenom that is Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, unfortunately it was probably just a matter of time before someone slipped up and said something racist.